Parshat Naso: Numbers 4:24-7:89, Shavuot

I am sad. And I am disappointed. I am angry. Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision upholding Proposition 8 is a blow to freedom and justice everywhere and within our own community in particular. The one hand gives and the other hand takes away. The Supreme Court that just a year ago found in our Constitution the fundamental right to marry and wrote eloquently about the power and meaning of the word marriage-now says the word marriage doesn’t really matter and that gay and lesbian couples are still protected in an institution (Domestic Partnership) that is not equal. We learned so long ago that separate is never equal.

We live now in an apartheid state. Where some of us are married and others in the gay and lesbian community cannot be married. And this is sinful. We shouldn’t have to place the rights of any minority at the hands of voters. But this is what was done. And the Supreme Court except for Justice Moreno didn’t understand why they should invalidate Proposition 8 as something that should never have been allowed to come before the voters. Now everyone’s rights are at risk by the ballot box.

This week we celebrate Shavuot—the holy Festival to celebrate the revelation at Mt. Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments. But it was also a season to mark the early harvest and we brought the first fruits (the bikkurim) to the Temple to dedicate to God. This sacrifice of our hard earned harvest put into a context our daily work and in an agrarian society acknowledges that the harvest we reap is in part because of God’s blessing upon us.

So what can we harvest from our work and what is God’s blessing even in this season of hurt, disappointment and anger? What can we dedicate to God as we observe Shavuot? And what will be our bikkurim, our first fruits of the harvest that we bring?

In the coming days and months ahead we will be called upon to help turn our grief, our anger and our rage into productive opportunities. We can dedicate our time and efforts to turning around this great injustice foisted upon our state through a campaign of lies, distortions and rhetoric. And we must. For now our only remedy will be to go back to the ballot box.

But a political campaign will not work unless we commit to harvesting relationships and building dialogue with others. We must talk to everyone we know about how this hurts you, how this hurts your friends and the indignity of being a second class citizen. We must gay and straight together speak across party lines, across our neighborhoods and workplaces with those that differ from us—making our case not by yelling or screaming but calm and peaceful engagement. And this is hard to do.

We may not convert people to our vision of inclusion and equality in their churches or synagogues but we can make our case for the separation of religion and state. And this is what we shall try to do together. This can be our harvest and this can be our offering.
On the Shabbat following Shavuot, this coming Saturday we read from parshat Naso. It contains the priestly benediction—so ancient and still so meaningful today.

And we ask this blessing upon all who labor for justice and equality and all who will commit to working for the day when the blessing of civil marriage will once again be open to gay men and women.

May God Bless you and keep you.

May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May God’s face be turned toward you and bless you with Peace.

Parshat Bemidbar, Numbers 1:1 -4:20

Memorial Day weekend is here. For most of us this signals that summertime is about to begin. You know what they say, after Memorial Day you can begin to wear white shoes!
With summer comes the inevitable summer vacations and the dilemma of what and how to pack. Should I travel lightly and avoid checking bags that they now charge fees for? Or should I make sure to have just the right outfit for every occasion? In either case, packing for a summer trip brings both ingenuity and skill to ensure that everything fits and arrives with the fewest wrinkles!

In this week’s Torah portion Bemidbar, the beginning of the fourth book of the Bible, the priests are given packing instructions! Aaron and his sons are told precisely how to pack up the Tent of Meeting for transport as the Israelites will now make their way through the Sinai desert toward the Promised Land. Aaron and his sons, the Cohanim, are strictly responsible for covering all of the utensils used in the sacrificial system, the altar itself and the Ark of the Covenant. They are to cover them in special cloths of blue and crimson (royal colors) and then further cover everything including the Menorah in some kind of skin. In some translations this is goat skin and in other translations dolphin skins. But they must carefully wrap and prepare all of the special vessels and ladles, and bowls and fire pans and furnishings as well. The priesthood must do these special tasks before the Kohathites and the Gershonites and Merarites, groups of Levites, come to carry the pieces of the Tent of Meeting through the wilderness until they would make the next camp.

The priesthood attends to such packing detail. The highest caste must do this seemingly menial work. Their attention to these details helps to keep the mysteries of the sanctuary intact. The Sages taught that God’s Divine Presence dwelt in the Tent of Meeting and no one but the Cohanim could encounter the Divine One. These unique and special vessels and the altar were likened to seeing God. Thus Eleazar, Aaron’s son, had to cover them and prepare these details so that the Kohathites charged with carry these specific things would not look upon them and die.

Packing up the Tabernacle in the desert is hardly packing for summer vacation. But the fact that the Torah outlines the packing process in great detail tells us a lot about the sanctity and holiness of all of these parts of the Tabernacle. It shows who is responsible not only for packing but for taking care of these details, this minutiae, and shows a loving responsibility faithfully executed. I say faithfully executed because all of these utensils and holy bowls and fire pans contain the Holiness of the Divine in them.

Today where do we find access to the holiness in the vessels that help us encounter the Divine? All too often our own awe and wonder is replaced by cynicism and a failure of faith. But if we can capture the awe; capture the holiness inherent in Jewish life then we might just overcome the idea that we need to that it doesn’t exist anymore—only for Bible stories. Access to the Divine and Holy Presence of God is still a possibility today but it takes a combination of prayer and prophetic purpose to instill in our souls the loving and faithful determination to reach to out to God and find God is reaching out to each of us. In a few days our community will be called upon to live out and speak out and march out in prophetic purpose our vision of a world of justice and equality for LGBT people. As we await the Supreme Court decision (perhaps next week) let us use this time as a time of preparation and packing—packing ourselves with the hope and inner fortitude and prayers for strength so that we might bring about a world of the includes our prophetic vision of inclusion.

Rabbi Eger's Board of Rabbis Installation Speech

Harry Truman — On Becoming a President

On April 12th, 1945, Harry Truman was summoned to the White House. Ushered into Eleanor Roosevelt's sitting room, the vice president was gently informed that President Roosevelt had died.
“Is there anything I can do for you?" Truman asked after a moment's reflection. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Eleanor replied. "You're the one in trouble now!"

I am the one in trouble now! As Vice president these last six years to Bob Gan, Yosef Kanefsky and my good friend Stuart Vogel — I can only hope to lead with as much compassion, dignity and chesed as these wonderful now past presidents of the board of rabbis. I am so honored to begin the next two years as President of the Board of Rabbis. Thank you to my colleagues for their confidence in my leadership.

Leadership is an interesting thing. It is a gentle balance between being strong and authentic and authoritative and yet open to compromise, consensus and most importantly I think listening rather than talking. So tonight even as I say a few words on this notion of leadership—I am humbled by my colleagues with whom I have had the pleasure of working on this Board for many years and their extraordinary talent, ideas, Jewish learning, and menschlikite. I look forward to working closely together in the next two years with such a strong and diverse group of rabbis whose creativity and commitment to Jewish life is unparalleled and whose respect for one another goes so deep into the fabric of what makes the Board of Rabbis of Southern California such a model of Klal Yisrael. Our shared concern and devotion to the whole Jewish people regardless of where we daven or if we daven should be I believe our paramount mission.

Klal Yisrael used to be an important principle in Jewish life- Growing up in Memphis, TN we all understood that we needed one another. But increasingly as partisan pressure has mounted in the outside world—this same lack of reaching across the aisle or should I say mechitza has reared its ugly head in the Jewish community. We Jews love to argue and engage in pilpul — in the art of examining every possibility, but all too often some in the Jewish community forget to love and respect one another too. Leadership demands this. Creating a community that embraces everyone demands this. The Board of Rabbis is the address that embodies this ideal of Klal Yisrael.

Anita Roddick was the CEO of the cosmetics company, The Body Shop. Her company was one of the first to prohibit animal testing and promoted fair trade in the Third World. She said:

“Leadership is creating a vision to which others can aspire and energizing them to work towards this vision.”

I hope that in these next two years — together we can shape a vision that will energize our chevre — our rabbis to lead the Jewish community to think creatively and to work cooperatively with the lay leadership of our congregations, organizations and especially the Jewish Federation to connect more Jews to the community even as we reach out to interfaith leaders to build a better Los Angeles!

We need to reach beyond gender and sexual orientation, ability, and class to help ensure that all our welcome at the Jewish communal table. The Board of Rabbis is uniquely able to educate and create opportunities to help even the unaffiliated become connected once again.

Leadership is a combination of factors-and yet according to William George and Walter Bennis—gurus of the modern ideals of leadership, the most important quality a leader can posses is authenticity. To be a leader is to be authentic. It is not about style but about 5 essential characteristics that must be practiced and lived to be authentic: understanding the purpose, practicing solid values, leading with the heart, establishing connected relationships, and demonstrating self-discipline.

These are not a sequential process but good leaders acquire these principles and practice them continually. Authenticity matters in crafting a leadership ideal. Authenticity is what we strive for—not some image of rabbi from another time or place—but authenticity in 21st Century Los Angeles has a different ring to it. This is what we will look to—thinking beyond the narrow boxes that have for so long kept us stuck in the same old ways.

In these fractious times, when our lives are so compartmentalized, even as we pursue the Messianic ideal of shelymut-completeness and wholeness, we know that authenticity is often elusive. We rabbis like our families and our congregants and those we serve are pulled in as many directions as they are and sometimes even more. People cry out for our attention and our skills. Our families need us and yet the immediacy of serving God and the Jewish people can distract us and take us away from our families. And so our Board of Rabbis is even more essential to create a community of rabbis across the Southland that can provide support for one another and Torah learning, dialogue and outreach to Jews and gentiles, chaplaincy to our jails and prisons and convalescent homes, and create a platform to speak with one rabbinic voice on the important issues of our day be it support for Israel or the orphan, widow or stranger in our midst.

This is the vision that we set before us tonight. And I hope we can continue to aspire to this vision-that will bring collaboration and comfort, caring and creativity and yes, a true sense of the sacred community that we have with one another.

Tonight is Lag B’omer—the 33rd day of counting of the Omer period between Passover and Shavuot. Each of the 49 days in between we wait impatiently to receive the covenant at Mt. Sinai once again so we can affirm our place in that historical chain of tradition and revelation.
But on this day-the Talmud (Yevamot 62b) teaches that a divine plague was sent and killed Rabbi Akiva’s students. More than 24,000 of them. All because they did not show the proper respect to one another, they begrudged one another their learning and spirituality. Let us hope that no Divine plague will be ever rendered again especially to scholars and rabbis or anyone.

Our Board of Rabbis exists to help us know one another and respect one another even in our differences. And that is a message that is not just for Rabbis alone. It is a message that we all need to hear. The Jewish community, the interfaith community, and our country. We must listen to one another, and yes, Love our neighbor as ourselves.
The custom of Lag B’omer is to light bonfires—in part as a memorial to the great mystical rabbi, Shimon Bar Yochai who is said to have died on this 33rd day of the counting of the Omer. These great fires light up the night as Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s light lit up our world and before his death he revealed the deepest hidden secrets of the Torah. So tonight while we will refrain from building a bon fire in the middle of Temple Emanuel—let me suggest that we build a bonfire of light and enlightenment that can indeed light up our city-and help us embrace a message of love and welcome.

Again, thank you for this great honor. I am humbled and ready to join together with you in transforming ourselves and the world.

Parshat Behar: Leviticus 25:1 – 26:2

This week’s Torah portion Behar deals with the ideals of the sabbatical year and the Jubilee year. Once every seven years and once every fiftieth year (after a cycle of 7 times 7 years) there are special rules applicable to the Israelites but only after they dwell in the sacred land of Israel. These rules did not apply as long as they were outside of the Holy Land.

We are all familiar with the sabbatical concept of the land. Every seven years we let the land lie fallow. We give it a Sabbath just as each week the seventh day is a Sabbath for humanity and animals. And in the fiftieth or Jubilee year the land reverts back to its original tribal owners keeping the original tribal distribution of land. These rules help us understand an important Jewish concept: the land belongs not to individuals but to God.

We are reminded of the verse from the book of Psalms: The earth is God’s and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein. For God hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. (Psalm 24)

God is the ultimate owner of not just the Holy land – although it is seen as holier than the land beyond those boundaries. But God owns the whole earth. God is the creator and God’s plan is the plan to be executed. Thus for six years we are lent the land, to use it and to be good stewards and then in the sabbatical year we are to return it as it were to God. Then in the fiftieth year though land may have been bought and sold, we are reminded sharply that the land must revert to those who were given the rights to the land.
Why bother with this detail? Again this is God’s doing. God controls the title and access to the land and this is cleaned up every fiftieth year.

In verse 25:23 we are reminded that “the land must not be sold beyond reclaim for the land is Mine. You are but strangers resident with Me. Throughout the land that you hold you must provide for the redemption of the land.” If ever we needed a clear idea of whose land it ultimately is God reminds us in this portion.

Why is this significant even if we don’t live in the land of Israel today?

It reminds us of some very important ideas about how we are expected to treat the land that we live on. We must not squeeze so much out of the land that it can never be fruitful again. Instead the land we build on, farm on, garden on, walk on and live on was created by God. Our planet as a whole demands our attention because it is on loan to humanity. We have a responsibility to care for our world and the land. It is a reminder that there is something greater than ourselves that we Jews call God and that something greater is at stake than just our own ideas of what to do and how to be. In the 12 step world we call this acknowledging a Higher Power. In the world of religion and spirituality we call this connecting with the Divine Source of the Universe.

So here in spring and as we enter the summer and many of us plant gardens and window boxes let us be reminded that the earth is but lent to us and let us redouble our efforts to care and manage our use of the earth in Godly ways.

Parshat Emor: Leviticus 21:1 -24:23

Parshat Emor covers the various Biblical holy days and festivals. A detailed account is given of Shabbat, Pesach, the counting of the Omer, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. These core holy days are the days of celebration of the Israelites and are our inheritance from ancient Israelite religion. But as they are described in the book of Leviticus they will not be as we observe them today. These biblical holy days have remnants that we observe today—such as at Pesach-eating unleavened bread or matzah, and at Rosh Hashanah sounding loud blasts or at Yom Kippur observing a day of Atonement. But the particulars of how these holy days are observed have changed through the centuries. If we ever needed proof that religions evolve and traditions change, then this section about the ways in which we are to observe the holidays is it!

The counting off the days –seven weeks worth from the day on which the ancient Israelites brought the sheaf offering to the Tabernacle until the 50 day is a special and unique period of time that we call Omer period. This special period 7 days of 7 weeks culminating in the 50th day we call now Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks) was marked so that individuals would bring a special offering of new grain from the harvest as well as first fruits offered to God. This is the period we are in right now.

According to tradition this 50th day or Pentacost is also a day of great salvation because we received the Ten Commandments at Sinai on this day. We call Shavuot “zman matan torateinu”- the time of the giving of our Torah. Thus from our Exodus on Pesach until arriving at Sinai we are anticipating the great real first gift—the gift of Torah.

But this season of counting is a time of special introspection and salvation. It is a time to work on the inner self. The mystics used this period of counting the omer to develop one’s character and inner spiritual and emotional core even more. Each of the seven weeks is dedicated to a mystical principle: the first week is Chesed - loving kindness, the second week is Gevurah, justice and discipline; the third week is Tiferet representing harmony and compassion; the fourth week is Netzach – endurance; the fifth week is Hod or humility; the sixth week is Yesod or bonding and the seventh week is dedicated to Malchut which is sovereignty and leadership. These Divine aspects of the mystical Tree help us reflect on each day and each divine attribute that we want to bring down into our world and our lives.

This week we are in the fourth and fifth week of counting the Omer for this year. This is the week of Netzach or Endurance and Hod or humility. For each of these ideals, endurance and humility, we reflect on our own abilities, our own experience of these in the world. How does our spiritual life help us to endure? And how does our spiritual life help us to remain humble? How does the practice of meditation on the counting of the omer help us to focus on these attributes and how might we apply then in our everyday living? Can we live with simple humility or will we let our egos run wild? Will we be able to patiently and with grace face difficulties and complications? Or will we cave from the pressures around us?

These are the questions of the week as we count the omer—count and prepare ourselves spiritually to receive the Torah once again at Sinai. May this week’s meditation help us receive the gift of Torah with humility and learn to protect our tradition’s enduring truths.